Monthly Archives: February 2011

4. Shoulder shrugs are yet another effective way to decrease stress, since most of us feel stress in our shoulders. Simply tensing the shoulders while raising them to the ears and then totally relaxing them a few times, quickly releases tension. Sitting up straight and taking walking breaks helps too. People who sit much of the time tend to slouch, which causes shoulder pain.

3. Breathing through meditation, yoga, and tai chi are other ways to control stress and it only takes a few moments. Typically, when we are stressed, our heart rate increases and breathing becomes very shallow and rapid. This depletes the body of the essential oxygen it needs in order to operate. By taking deep breaths that flow into our stomach and not just to the lungs quickly decreases stress. Deep breathing also tends to slow down heart rate. Over time, one can replace shallow breathing with deeper breathing without having to consciously focus on it.

2. A second way to decrease the effects of stress is by eating healthfully. What we eat greatly affects how we feel and think. If we eat foods high in saturated fats, cholesterol, and sugar, irritability, headaches, digestion problems, inability to concentrate, nervousness, and a variety of other symptoms can develop which greatly impede our ability to function.

Similarly, those who drink high amounts of caffeine, sugar, and alcohol and consume very little water, milk, or juice often experience similar negative symptoms. Eating poorly or irregularly compounds stress. Eating healthy foods such as fruits, vegetables, protein, grain, and calcium products and drinking at least six glasses of water per day enables our bodies to function in a much more efficient fashion.

1. One of the most common ways in which many of us choose to decrease our stress levels is by exercising regularly (30 minutes four days each week). Aerobic exercise is an excellent way to decrease stress as it causes our bodies to release endorphins and a number of other healing/calming chemicals. Further, exercise improves our physical and mental health, thereby, decreasing the risk of getting ill and increases recovery time if we do become ill. Also, exercise allows us to divert our attention away from the stress and toward our workout.

We had another assistant manager promotion today! Andrea joined the company in 2010 after returning from a year overseas in Australia. Her major was in English, but she found she really enjoyed working with people every day and she excelled in her career in sales and marketing. Since she had a strong leadership background, she found it easy to take advantage of the opportunity for growth she was provided with.